Mets Game 105: Win Over Brewers

Mets 2 Brewers 0

Mets Game Notes

Jacob deGrom hurled yet another stellar ballgame, shutting out the Brewers through 6 1/3. Good job by the bullpen to hold it up.

Interesting to see every Brewers hitter prior to Jean Segura hack at the first pitch offered by Jenrry Mejia in the ninth — especially since they were down by two runs. I wonder if that was simply an indication of the Brewers’ aggressiveness, or if it was a strategy based on a scouting report. I was especially surprised to see Jonathan Lucroy roll over the first pitch leading off the inning — even if he hit it out, they still would’ve been one run down.

Have to be happy to split against the Brewers in Milwaukee.

Next Mets Game

Joe Janish began MetsToday in 2005 to provide the unique perspective of a high-level player and coach -- he earned NCAA D-1 All-American honors as a catcher and coached several players who went on to play pro ball. As a result his posts often include mechanical evaluations, scout-like analysis, and opinions that go beyond the numbers. Follow Joe's baseball tips on Twitter at @onbaseball and at the On Baseball Google Plus page.

Yes, ajd for the first time ever Duda is carrying the Mets. And that is what you expect from your big guy, clean up hitter, a couple of times a year.

Offense is a funk again. Terry playing shuffle the deck again. C Young needs a 1 way ticket.

Sandy needs to make a move and add offense, subtract the dead weight and mix in some value to make it happen. All this talk about not making a deal just for the sake of making one reminds me of the quote from Rush’s Freewill, “If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.”

crozierJuly 27, 2014 at 9:31 pm

An interesting hidden stat on Duda is that he leads the NL in percentage of “hard hit balls.” He’s always been good at seeing the ball, and intermittently good at driving it. Since Lamar Johnson came on board and his move to cleanup, he’s been firing on all cylinders.

I count myself as one of those who said he was no long-term solution at first base, but I’m going to shut up about that for now. I don’t expect his hot hand to last for too long, because the league approach of feeding him first-pitch fastballs is probably over. But I doubt he’s going to fade away, either.

As for deGrom, he’s got to be in the running for July Pitcher of the Month. That’s pretty amazing.

DaveSchneckJuly 27, 2014 at 11:21 pm

Joe,
Yes, the Dude is carrying the team. Yes, it is a small sample. Yes, the league will response and the first pitch cookies will end. However, the Dude has proven that he can do it, and that very likely Alderson made the right choice retaining him over Ike.

Kudos to deGrom and the pen today, and for the entire staff for this trip. They scored over 3 runs only once but managed to go 5-5.

So far, and with the benefit of hindsight, there’s no question that Duda was the right choice.

Before Davis was traded, though — and as far back as when he was in the midst of hitting 32 homeruns — I never understood the love affair for Ike Davis, from the Mets fans and those working the team. He is a nice guy, good personality, and he accidentally runs into mistakes once in a while, but never looked to me like someone who was going to anchor 1B and be the star so many had believed — and after the foot injury, he was toast. I’m not sure why it took so long for the Mets to realize Duda was the better of the two options; though, maybe they did, but needed to wait long enough for the opportunity for another team to take Davis off their hands.

Now, just because I believe/believed Duda was the better option, doesn’t necessarily mean I think Duda is the long-term option. I’m going to hold my decision on that for a while.

SethJuly 28, 2014 at 9:55 am

As a left-handed Jew, I was heavily invested in the idea of a similarly aligned slugger anchoring first on my favorite team for years to come. Glad Duda is working out in the meanwhile. I did hate Davis’s propensity to argue with umpires. Anyway, I still have my #29 t-shirt.